SIERRA MADRE – Local officials have made Sierra Madre the latest city in the San Gabriel Valley to pass increased restrictions on where sex offenders can live.

California’s passage in 2006 of Proposition 83, more commonly known as Jessica’s Law, banned registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of any school or park. But a clause in the law allowed cities to enact their own, stricter restrictions.

Enter Sierra Madre’s new ordinance, which adds children’s facilities other than schools or parks, such as a drawing center for children, to the list of off-limits sites.

The local law goes a step further by keeping sex offenders from loitering within 300 feet of such places, and prevents more than one sex offender from living in the same home or rental complex, unless related by blood or marriage.

In addition, the ordinance authorizes property owners to tell a sex offender to leave a certain area.

“I’m supporting it because I think it’s a proactive way to ensure that the community of Sierra Madre remains safe,” Sierra Madre Police Department Chief Marilyn Diaz.

The ordinance leaves just 0.12 square miles out of the city’s 3.2 square mile area, or about 4 percent, available for sex offenders to live in, Diaz said.

“It’s a select few streets in the far northeast portion,” Councilman John Buchanan explained.

There are currently four registered sex offenders living in Sierra Madre, all of whom live in those parts of the city that will be restricted in the future under the new ordinance, Diaz said.

Arcadia passed an ordinance in May that made 85 percent of that city off-limits to sex offenders.

In January, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, on a motion by Supervisor Michael Antonovich, adopted a sex offender ordinance for the county’s unincorporated areas.

The county’s ordinance effectively leaves 120 square miles of county territory available for sex offenders to live in. By comparison, the county has about 2,600 square miles of unincorporated territory, about 65 percent of the county’s total area.

Critics of Jessica’s Law say it leaves registered sex offenders with nowhere to live.

Other cities, including West Covina, El Monte, Alhambra, Rosemead, Pomona, San Marino and Long Beach, adopted increased residency restrictions on sex offenders before the county passed its ordinance, most of them within the past year.